Nassau, Bahamas — Bahamas Press expresses concerns as a conflict of interest clouds the sale of BTC.
BP is reliably informed that BTC Union Boss, Bernard Evans, accepted some months ago a position on the Board of BTC. The union boss, who serves with board President Julian Francis, we are told, was privy to the government decisions at the Corporation months ago with its plans to axe more than 30% of BTC workers.
Evans not until Friday, following the announcement of a pending sale of BTC in the press, decided to disclose to his membership the privatization committee’s intent to separate members of his own union.
How cold, callous, WICKED and CONFLICTING it is to have the union president appointed to the Board at BTC.
BTC Board members are “PAID” paws with fiduciary responsibility for the Corporation. In fact, to be on the Board means you answer to the assigned CABINET MINISTER and ultimately the Prime Minister of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas! WHAT A TRAITOR!
Could you IMAGINE Evans being on the Board at ZNS headed by that “Three Teeth” Chairman Michael Moss? We really need to WAKE UP!
How could a man, who speaks on behalf of the PEOPLE he represents, [WORKERS at BTC] also answer to the Minister with responsibility for the Corporation? WHAT KIND A DOLLHOUSE IS THIS WE ARE PLAYING WITH THE PEOPLE OF THE BAHAMAS?
Has Evans also turned into a two-forked-tongue serpent against his own people? Out one side he speaks for BTC workers and out the other side he speaks for the Government?
A double minded man is unstable in all his ways!
Bahamas Press rebukes this WICKED PARADE and ABUSE OF POWER now being displayed by union leaders in the Bahamas! They are sold to the highest bidder and cannot any longer speak on behalf of the people in this country!
We know Evans had a meeting with his boss, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham yesterday. We wonder what was discussed during that meeting. What we know is this, whatever was discussed with the PM, the workers will not hear any time soon!
SOME PEOPLE JUST HAVE NO DAMN SHAME!
What a shame; did some say solidarity among the unions.O my GOD! Bahamian people in trouble: no morals at all. Just resign now
Responsible reporting is really needed in this day & time. This story is old…Yes he was on the board & I believe that he brought a whole lot to “so-called Board Directors” who never know what ‘the hell’ is going on in our corporations. The info received from those meetings attended exposed that Board Members need to “come into the field”. Why didn’t you just contact Mr. Evans and ask him about the story…give him an opportunity before printing rubbish.
Has anyone asked why does Mr. Moss have to head both the BTC & BEC Boards? I believe in Bahamians being in charge, so is there no other Bahamian available? In response to comments that “some persons were rehired from the down-sizing in 1999- that is so not true….People do some work…investigate….If it had then those of us who remained at BTC would have had to be paid. Yes we did meet with the Prime Minister along with the Managers union. The meeting was to reiterate our cause for BAHAMIANS to lead our corporations & not sell out to foreigners, like Cable & Wireless. What will be left for our children or their children for the future? Will we all be visitors in the land we were born in? Wake up people-take our head out of the sand.
Mario that is a question for the FNMs to answer for it is obvious the party is void of talent.
BP
It is obvious you are EMPTY of what is ETHICALLY right to do. IGNORANCE IS BLISS!
BP
BP, A little thing called VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) blew away all the economics of a circuit switched telecommunications company. BTC fought tooth and nail against VoIP which was a HUGE strategic error. This was not rocket science. The entire telecommunications world saw it and made the transition much, much sooner that BTC. BTC also completely bungled the switch to 3G cell coverage. Instead of stabilizing the core, it tried to introduce features like Blackberry support befor the voice component was properly in place.
And please, BP, tell us that you’re happy with BTC’s service levels, cell, landline, internet, VoIP or long distance. It’s another bloated joke of an outfit whose time has come.
As a leader it is great to come out the upper offices & speak with line staff…if BTC’s top Management had done the same…we would have embraced it differently.
Now with this point made, while we withdraw the 78 Million net profits position in 2006, we still pose the question; “WHY ARE WE SELLING THE MOST PROFITABLE CORPORATION IN THE COUNTRY to a 51% controlling interest?”
BP
It’s a good question. While other corporations are hemorrhaging the public’s finances, BTC pays dividends annually to the public treasury.
Alot of persons make it seem as if BTC’s balance sheet relies on any govt support when it is completely off balance sheet and injects revenues through dividends to its shareholder.
Some of which essentially subsidizes the loss making entities. Also this means that the people will now get 1/2 of whatever dividends are declared by the company’s directors.
But if we are this far, lets get this process overwith. Lets just hope we get as much out of the buyers as possible. I hope its closer to 250m than 200m as they are paying for controlling interest and goodwill associated.
Also keep in mind that whatever severance persons get won’t have to come from the taxpayers but out of BTC’s retained earnings as BTC has tons of cash on its balance sheet.
According to Former General Manager at BTC Mr. Leon Williams here are the correct and true financial positions of BTC given during the mentions periods.
We invite readers to NOTE! Profits at the corporation increased by 22.8% from $293 Million to $360 Million during the period 2005 to 2006.
Former President & CEO
Bahamas Telecommunications Company
(Telecommunications industry)
December 2005 — April 2008 (2 years 5 months)
•Key Performance Indicators. Created new Revenue Streams and Marketing Channels so as to:
Improve Revenues by 22.8% from $293 Million to $360 Million
Improve Net Profits by 44.1% from $34 Million to $49 Million
Improve EBITDA by 8% from 26% to 34%
Improve Cash in The Bank by 130.4% from $73.8 Million to $170 Million.
•Company DNA changed from Engineering driven to Marketing led with strong focus on Customer Centricity.
Introduction of Six Sigma Program.
Customer Town Hall Meetings conducted. Championed “Voice Of The Customer” Program.
Marketing Promos and Interviews in International Magazines: Time, News Week, The Economist, Miami Herald, Washington and New York Post and Fortune.
•Partnership and Alliance building:
•Served on the Government of The Bahamas BTC Privatization Committee 2002 – 2007 responsible for the sale of 49% of the shares of BTC as Chairman of the Technical Sub Committee responsible for the evaluation of the Bidders’ Strategic and Business plans.
“We invite readers to NOTE! Profits at the corporation road by 22.8% from $293 Million to $360 Million during the period 2005 to 2006. This is up to the time Leon was REMOVED from the company.”
Sigh…Not again BP. Profits were NOT 298m and 360m, the release refers to revenues.
Profits were in the 30s-40s.
Cant you people see this is one of the PM stragitiy he uses. If you dig deep enough you will see that the majority of union presidents are on a board in this country. John Pinder, Nicole Martin, Bernard Evans, Roy, Colebrooke(past) and many more. This way he can controll the Unions by way of its presidents. Unions have the power to make or break any Government…Remember Shane Gibson… he was awarded a position in the PLP for starting the revolt againgst Papa last time around. watch the trend..these presidents take home salaries of $7000.00 per month and have the benifits of coperate cards, vehicles, gas, travel allowance, meal expenses, and blatent abuse the union’s funds and hide their misappropaitions as miscellenous expenses in the books people. Wake up..If Roy Colebrooke could not stop the mas firings of one thousand workers inthe hotel union, how could , evans, martin, or big mouth John wanna be polition Pinder save any jobs of the civil service??? They are all political operatives being used as a tool…..I say, save your money and drop out of this ill effective schemes. Unions of today are bought out by the governments they serve upon.
I dont see the problem with the Union representative sitting on the board of BTC. I believe that it allows the position of the union (and by extension, the employees) to be voiced around the board room table. Its absolutely ridiculous to suggest that because the Union president sits on the board that that makes him a dancer to the govt’s beat. In fact, the board of the College of the Bahamas has a number of representatives sitting on it who represent groups of different stakeholders at the college. The Student union president sits on the board, the UTEB president sits on the board, an alumni (former student) sits on the board, etc. No one has ever accused them of being unable to perform these dual roles.
You don’t see nothing wrong if he also served on the board of ZNS? Boy, we have NO EITHICAL STANDARDS WHATSOEVER IN THIS COUNTRY! I guess that is why we accept a man’s sweetie, who is also in charge of a major financial area of the country, working in the same department defrauding the public purse?
Keep reading BP and you you know where we coming from.
BP
There needs to be a change in corporate governance in this country, especially in these public agencies. they need to be depoliticized! Persons are appointed based on their POLITICAL LOYALTY. Check NIB’s Board. Three FNM Union leaders are there. That is calculated! Further, union leaders in this country are only concerned about their political careers and money! They are gansters and have no shame. Bernard Evans is just an example.
We are well aware of the situation STAN, I hope they could take the heat when BP put MONEY AGAINST THEM THIS LAP! SOME PEOPLE HAS NO DAMN SHAME! How could you suppose to “SPEAK FOR PEOPLE” out of one side of the tongue, and be seen to be answering to minister out of the next?
WHAT KIND A JUNKANOO SOCIETY WE PLAYING WITH HERE?
BP
Hubert Ingraham and his FNM are FAILURES to the Bahamian people. We noted yesterday how BTC made more than $78 million NET PROFIT in 2006. It moved from a Corporation tinkering on the verge of collapse Under the First FNM to a mega profit cash cow under Bradley Roberts. Has anyone in this WUTLESS RECKLESS INGRAHAM GOVERNMENT can tell us what were the profit margins of BTC in 2007, 2008 and 2009?
The question has been put for almost a day and not a DAMN response.
CRAZY HEAD and STICKY HANDS!
BP
BP please do some research. You guys do a good job with ‘being on the scenes’ but some things that are public info and require simple analysis yet you guys are way off on.
Firstly, you can find thier annual reports on thier website.
Secondly, BTC made 76m profit in 06? Perhaps they did, but not according to their Audited Annual Reports.
According to their Audited reports,
Net Income: 50m in 02
36m in 03
8m in 04
34m in 05
43m in 06 NOT 76M!!!
42m in 07
21m in 08
According to a press release of theirs they project 09 to be higher.
But lets be real, both govts, its executives and boards are quite responsible for BTC. Keep in mind that if BTC had 2,000 employees as it did before the initial downsizing, it’d be impossible for them to make the profits they are making now.
SO please tell me where you found this 76m dollar figure from. Neither its net cash flows nor operating income were even that much.
Tired we hear you, if you can, Send us the link to validate these numbers.
Please don’t just call the numbers, send us the PRess release by BTC or the AGM report.
BP
Hi BP, the reason why I didnt post the link and directed you to the website was because I think I tried to send a link b4 and didnt see my post. I know WordPress has spam filters sometimes to filter links, I’ll retry after this post. If you dont see it go to BTC’s site – About Us, Annual Report. All of the reports are listed there.
The press release is on thier old site, can’t locate on thier new one but Google found me them by searching BTC annual report 2009 or something.
Annual reports – www2.btcbahamas.com/aboutus/publications/annual_report.php
Press release – www1.btcbahamas.com/media/press_content.php?id=091027175003
Years ago when BTC had first announced plan to be sold, didn’t they downsize and give people packages? Years later and plans still being made for the sale, how is it that they are overstaffed at such a rate? That is rediculous… people were paid and sent home, then brought back to work, and now the government want to pay them and send them home again… Wow!
@lady- that so true, you just beat me to the punch,this folks to jokey still think,the average people here dam stupid.
I don’t know where you got the info about people being rehired, but that is not true. While BTC has managed to cut its staffing by almost 50% it is still overstaffed. it is this way because many of the processes that are being carried out are now automated, hence the need to downsize again.
It is just my hope that this time personal feelings will not get in the way of who stays and who goes. I hope it becomes a lean mean efficient machine that puts customer satisfaction above the red tape.
no shame at all………we dont have much choices in this plp/fnm town
It’s completely understandable that another bloated government entity intends to correct-size. It’s been a long time coming, but truly needs to be done. The benefits to the average Bahamian citizen will be great when the overall prices come down and the added 3G type services improve. As for this Union clown…that’s a double dip, she should immediately resign from both posts.
YES and it is also completely understandable that another representative of the PEOPLE has betrayed them for 30 pieces of silver. SOME PEOPLE HAVE NO SHAME!!!
BP
Governments do have to cut back in tough times but its often how you do it not that you have to do it. I think that’s what the article was about. Whether the process is clean and the hands of the players are clean. Those things are clearly in doubt based on this report.
We have to come to the realization in this Bahamas in this country that the people in charge of a lot of our Agencies an Businesses just have no morals. How much is enough? How much do they expect us as citizens to take. I am not one to exite violence, but in the not to distant future people are going to become so frustrated if this continues that someone is going to take a gun to their work place and fire on everyone. This is the way we are heading. Frustration eventually is going to boil over. We need to be more fair to our own brothers and sisters. There is alot in this country for everyone to prosper but I don’t know what happened to us but we have lost the will to share and look after each other.
I hope it changes………………….
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